AGSP 2005 

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"The Carbon Commodity and Sustainable Conservation in Costa Rica"
Sean Carney 

Undergraduate Student

University of Southern California

ABSTRACT:
This project explores the interface of the Kyoto Protocol with local community development and conservation efforts in the Naranjo River Biological Corridor on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.

Since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit two issues have dominated international environmental policy: global climate change and biodiversity. As a response to global climate change, the Kyoto Protocol was developed which uses a carbon credit trading program used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One component of this program allows credits to be granted to institutions which invest in developing countries which are not part of the Protocol. This paper focuses on a program in Costa Rica sponsored by Norway which creates carbon credits for the world market through carbon sequestration in forests.

The program pays small farmers to conserve and reforest land on their property which guarantees the forests will remain intact and will thus sequester carbon. This program has been utilized to provide farmers who border the Naranjo river with an incentive to allow non-profit organizations to reforest parts of their property in order to create a biological corridor which will connect Costa Rica's smallest national park with a large private reserve. The corridor will allow animals to flow between the two conservation zones and thus increase the biodiversity of the area.

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